Powder dispensers? Pros and cons?

[jski]

I’ve been thinking about getting an RCBS powder dispenser BUT have some reservations. Every digital scale I’ve owned (3 now) all drift. If you leave a charge on the scale for more than a few seconds the reading starts to drift … plus or minus. They also need frequent recalibration and zeroing.

So it sounds good to just set a weight and watch the powder trickle out until it stops trickling but do you consistently get what you asked for?

For me ground truth is my Ohaus 10-10. It doesn’t trickle but it always gives a credible measure … without worrying if it’s warmed up or if the charge has been sitting in the pan for seconds or minutes or hours.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I turn both my digital scales on a 1/2 before I start reloading or I just leave them on all the time. Neither one drifts, they are always reading zero.
On a cold startup one of them will drift a little until it warms up. Mine are Hornady bench scale and National Metalic scale I bought cheap to make my free ****pping.

My Hornady Auto Charge will work well with some powders and I will have to tune it in for other powders and even then it will still go over by 1/10 and alarm out, now and then, with the problem powders. It has to be manually reset by pressing the enter button and it will dispense again.

But for the most part it saves me so much time I won't be without it.
As far as accuracy it is as accurate as any other bench scale at that price point.

I don't see where the RCBS's would be any different.

 

[dh1633pm]

Consistent enough for my uses. Mine weighs my check weight every time without calibration. Mine being the Chargemaster Supreme. Much better than my previous Hornady that would have to calibrated all the time. It also has a clunky interface that is not intuitive. On the Hornady just to dispense was a no brainer. The RCBS not so. You could always weigh each charge on your other scale. I only use mine for rifle. Pistol loads are just too slow.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I think the original Hornady's were hit and miss as to whether all functions worked as advertised. Mine is about 10ys old and still works good, but I've seen a lot of posts where different Hornady and the RCBS scales were giving their owners problems.

Frankford Arsenal's Intelladropper is supposed to be decent for the price also. That's what my next one will be when my Auto Charge dies. I don't hear much about the Lyman brands.

These aren't guaranteed for longer than their normal 90 day or whatever it is, warranty, just so you know. May be a year, I haven't looked for so long. None of the companies we deal with will warranty electronic devices for longer than the initial warranty period like they do their presses and accessories.

 

[Howa 9700]

I remain an analog mind trapped in a digital world. Perhaps because I have always used a balance beam scale, I trust them.......and for limited load development, a Lee dipper into the pan and trickle up by hand is both accurate and fast enough for my purposes. No batteries required.

Once you get the load developed and want to go into production mode, either the Lee PPM or deluxe version both seem to be dead nuts accurate.......and instant.

 

[lordpaxman]

So it sounds good to just set a weight and watch the powder trickle out until it stops trickling but do you consistently get what you asked for?

It not only sounds good, it is good. I can set my beam pan on the dispenser, zero, set a weight and then…wait for the beep… and hang it back on the beam. After a while I convinced myself it was dispensing within my acceptable limits. I also have a second digital scale that I can compare the dispensed weight against, it‘s just faster than the beam me up Scotty method.
I have the older RCBS 1500 and performed a few mods to get it to be slightly more consistent. I do leave it turned on for periods of time and it might drift a few tenths over the course of a week.
It did take a while for me to switch from snail mail to email…

 

[JDeere]

I had a Pact scale and dispenser I used for a bit. It was accurate but slow imo. I put the dispenser away and put the micrometer deal on my Uniflow. dispenser. So much faster and darn accurate as well. I used the Pact scale for awhile for check purposes until I did not trust any longer. I found an older Ohaus 1010 on EBay and never looked back. I have a set of check weights and she is right on the money...

 

[jmorris]

So it sounds good to just set a weight and watch the powder trickle out until it stops trickling but do you consistently get what you asked for?

For me ground truth is my Ohaus 10-10. It doesn’t trickle but it always gives a credible measure … without worrying if it’s warmed up or if the charge has been sitting in the pan for seconds or minutes or hours.

I think a better question is how consistent do you get what you ask for. RCBS will tell you, .2 (+/-.1).

Then you have their auto zero “feature“…

Charge Master 1500 drift

www.youtube.com

If you like your beam scale, you can set it up to beat them though.

This is an old 505 with the trickler controlled by a photo switch, note that A&D is displaying to the hundredth of a grain, not just tenths.

Autotrickler check with A&D FX-120i

www.youtube.com

It’s not a rocket science project either, this is the guts of it, less than $50.

I have also used proximity sensors (better fit on the 10-10).

Auto trickler

www.youtube.com

And even other brands.

 

[Blue68f100]

I’ve been thinking about getting an RCBS powder dispenser BUT have some reservations. Every digital scale I’ve owned (3 now) all drift. If you leave a charge on the scale for more than a few seconds the reading starts to drift … plus or minus. They also need frequent recalibration and zeroing.

So it sounds good to just set a weight and watch the powder trickle out until it stops trickling but do you consistently get what you asked for?

For me ground truth is my Ohaus 10-10. It doesn’t trickle but it always gives a credible measure … without worrying if it’s warmed up or if the charge has been sitting in the pan for seconds or minutes or hours.

My 1st digital scale was a RCBS Rangemaster 750 that I bought 20+ yrs ago. It worked good for many years before it started drifting even on batteries. I bought the Charge Master 1500 around 6 yrs ago and it has worked flawlessly right out of the box. These older ones you could change parameters to speed them up and still dispense accurately. I do have a reduced ID tube in mine so it handles the tubular/stick/log powder without over shooting. This does increase the dispensing time. It's my under standing there are at least 3 different version of these, all requiring a different power supply. There are a few things that I have learned to do over the years to help with accuracy and to eliminate any zero drift. One is to let the thing warm up a min of 15 min. I normally will turn mine on the night before I need it. I check the accuracy with calibration weights and very seldom do I need to calirate. When loading match grade ammo I check the charge with my Gem Pro 250, 0.02 gr accuracy. The CM1500 is surprising always within 0.04 gr and most of the time 0.02 gr.

My neighbor has the Hornady brand. The 1st one he got drifted all over the place. Hornady replaced it under warranty and it has worked good since.

Clean power is a requirement for high precision scales to be stable as well as a solid level surface for them to sit on. Most over look leveling the scale. This has a big impact on how the weight is distributed onto the load cell. If not level you have extra friction on the side loading of the stem. Though you don't think this is a problem it can effect accuracy. Just like making sure the weight is in the center of the pan and not to one side. Now the CM1500 as long as it is has 8 leveling feet. All must have equal pressure when leveled for the scales to preform the best. I built a small leveling platform for 1 set of scales that had no means of leveling.

When I worked in the Lab of a R&D center all of our high precision beam scales where setting on Marble/granite stands which required a fork truck to set up. Even with a 700+ lb table there was still things that would shake the scales. Like some one dropping a 500 lb valve in another part of the building. So make sure your scale area is level and solid. Even our good Digital scales had leveling feet to level the scales, were calibrated annually.

Keep your electronics away from your scales. Some florescent and LED lights effect some digital scales. Normally it's the older magna ballast on florescent lights but not always. On led fixtures it's the power supply that can cause problems. Even a appliance (ref/frez) in your house can put noise on the line. I've seen noise coming from power packs used to charge/run device generate noise. I had a portable scope I used to see how clean the line was. It had a record function and normaly I had to let it run for 24 hrs to find intermiten noise. In my dad's house I found that the ground rod connection got burned off from a lighting stikes. This strike took out a lot of appliances.

Electronics keep improving as well as mfg process. In most cases the scales are getting better and cheaper.

 

[AJC1]

My chargemaster stays plugged in and turned on except during storms. I use a check weight to calibrate and zero before use. If in doubt I use a check weight and rezero.

 

[jtv3062]

I have the auto trickler v3. They now have the v4.
The best money I've ever spent.
Set your charge, relax, and load.
Save some money and send Adam your order.
Protip for the V3. Butler flip up scope cover for a lid on the trickler.
Buy the Lee precision bottle adapter so you can use the powder bottle as the charge bottle.

NEW: AutoTrickler V3 Powder Dispensing System (full details)

Get it here: https://www.autotrickler.com/autotrickler.htmlFull Story: https://bit.ly/2Qk4K39It's here! AutoTrickler V3. This new version brings Bluetooth co...

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[CraigC]

I use the RCBS dispenser for load development and small batches. Had it probably 15yrs. I was highly skeptical at first but it has proven itself.

 

[Targa]

I use a Chargemaster Lite and a Frankford Arsenal DS-750 digital scale to confirm the initial powder drop. Certainly not the most efficient/quickest way to do it but it works for me as I am primarily loading for wheel guns.

 

[Gun-Reck]

Manual Powder Charge drop/Tickler/Beam Scale.

Hand-made handloads for the field, where it counts.

 

[VoodooMountain]

I usually use Lee load dippers and weigh each charge on my hornady dispenser or a beam scale.

I also use the Lee powder dispenser sometimes.

My hornady is about 10 years old and has always been finicky. It does work well most of the time but I also don't love it near as much as I thought I would.

 

[IALoder]

I run a charge master lite, and am pretty happy with it. I let it warm up for 15 minutes minimum before calibrating and having drop charges. Very rarely does it drift, if it does, it's .1gr. I have checked it against my ohaus 5-0-5 on some higher volume loadings (100 or so)with powders that don't meter very well (like IMR4064), and it has always been within.1gr of the ohaus. It's GREAT for loading ladder tests! With bulk loadings I still prefer my uniflow and 5-0-5 for ball powders and powders that meter well.

 

[jski]

Alright guys, I’ve had problems throwing consistent charge weights with some powders, notably Universal and Unique. And that happens with a Redding manual dispenser.

What’s consistent is ±0.2 grains when I’m trying for 5.5 grains. Sometimes ±0.3 grains!

Is this the remedy for that problem? Digital dispensers?

 

[Blue68f100]

Switch over to ball powder. That what I did 20+ yrs ago for the ones I want to load with a powder dispenser.

You can use a digital dispense as an option, but it's too slow if you have volume to do. You have to adj your load so you don't over charge to allow for the variation if using a manual dispenser.

 

[jski]

Switch over to ball powder. That what I did 20+ yrs ago for the ones I want to load with a powder dispenser.

You can use a digital dispense as an option, but it's too slow if you have volume to do. You have to adj your load so you don't over charge to allow for the variation if using a manual dispenser.

Problem is I have LOTS of Universal that I don’t want to throw away and besides, it works well !

I will say, it’s a pleasure to work with True Blue and H110. Both throw extremely consistently!

 

[Targa]

I can say that Universal works very well with the Chargemaster lite as well as the small, spherical magnum stuff AA9, H110, Ramshot Enforcer etc etc. It is much slower than the case activated powder drops.

 

[AK Hunter]

My Chargemaster only drifts up with a load of powder in the pan. I take it as the powder is absorbing moisture from the air, it doesn't drift up or down with an empty pan.

 

[Walkalong]

Problem is I have LOTS of Universal that I don’t want to throw away and besides, it works well !

I will say, it’s a pleasure to work with True Blue and H110. Both throw extremely consistently!

Stop getting too worried about the +/- if it shoots well, which it does, so……..

Kind of like Unique or 700X, both shoot way better than they measure

 

[johnjohn]

While I know you folks love your electronic scales etc. I had one once and after a trip to the "mother ship", it worked for about 30 seconds and became a paper weight. It now resides in a landfill. Gravity doesn't "mess up'.

 

[film495]

problem I've had with digital scales is they are slow when trickling. so, I want to trickly .2 and the scale does not move and then it jumps by .4 ... my work around is to lift the pan and have it take a new reading, which seems to work around it.

 

[Walkalong]

Patience my friend, a fine opportunity to practice patience.